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HD 7970ghz still viable?

Xa3phod

Xa3phod

Junior Member
I play mostly Planetside 2. I need 60fps on maxed out settings. I am getting just under 60.

Currently running I5-2500K OCed to 4ghz on air.
the above mentioned video card.
16gigs dominator ram.

I need more power Scotty! What has to be upgraded? Can I get a new R90 280X (which is a 7970ghz with a slightly lower clock rate) and X-fire the suckers? Its $300 for a new R90 280X. Or do I move to a single card solution?

Or do I need a new cpu? I don't see much improvement even with devil's canyon.

Any suggestions?

thanks
 
Online games are generally CPU bound. It depends on the game, but you might find a hex-core gives you better performance. In BF4 the 2 extra cores boost multi-player performance significantly.
 
Any Tahiti GPU (7870 XT, 7950, 7970, R9 280, R9 280X) can use crossfire with any other Tahiti GPU. It's one of the cool things about Crossfire compared to SLI. If they use the same chip, they can crossfire, even if the number of active cores is different.

That said, it's true that online games tend to be CPU-bound. I don't know about buying a hex-core for that, though. Maybe buy a better cooler and see if you can get your CPU to 4.5GHz?
 
Make sure any physx options for that game are turned off. If you haven't already, overclock your card. You should be able to hit 60fps in that game.
 
Xa3phod said:
I play mostly Planetside 2. I need 60fps on maxed out settings. I am getting just under 60.

Currently running I5-2500K OCed to 4ghz on air.
the above mentioned video card.
16gigs dominator ram.

I need more power Scotty! What has to be upgraded? Can I get a new R90 280X (which is a 7970ghz with a slightly lower clock rate) and X-fire the suckers? Its $300 for a new R90 280X. Or do I move to a single card solution?

Or do I need a new cpu? I don't see much improvement even with devil's canyon.

Any suggestions?

thanks
Click to expand...

See if you can overclock that cpu a bit further, planetside likes per-core performance.

unless you're running a ridiculous resolution I don't think a gpu upgrade will help you much, especially if you get a 280x which is identical to a 7970.
 
Anarchist420 said:
7970 Ghz edition was one of the only decent products that AMD/ATi ever made.
Click to expand...
27424758d1394748465-fansproject-stunticons-menasor-aka-m3-intimidator-notsureifserious.jpg
 
I also play PS2! Things to keep in mind:

-PS2 benefits most from strong single thread performance. Overclocking helps. The game does not utilize hyperthreading.
-It doesn't need a lot of GPU power for 1080p gaming. It also runs better on Nvidia hardware, but a Radeon 280x can push 1080p Ultra settings at very fluid framerates.
-The game is picky when it comes to dual GPU solutions. I'd avoid Crossfire/SLI.

Consider a Geforce 770.
 
Attic said:
Push the 2500k to 4.4ghz.

7970 to 1100 on core.
Click to expand...

+1 more

If you are "just under" where you want to be, this will likely do the trick.

If not, upgrading the cpu cooler and pushing that puppy closer to 5GHz will be more beneficial than getting a new GPU.
 
Haven't seen the need to upgrade my Trusty HD 7970, outstanding performance. I have mine running @ 1150 Mhz 24/7 but i could push to 1250 if i want to
 
Last edited:
Techhog said:
Any Tahiti GPU (7870 XT, 7950, 7970, R9 280, R9 280X) can use crossfire with any other Tahiti GPU. It's one of the cool things about Crossfire compared to SLI. If they use the same chip, they can crossfire, even if the number of active cores is different.

That said, it's true that online games tend to be CPU-bound. I don't know about buying a hex-core for that, though. Maybe buy a better cooler and see if you can get your CPU to 4.5GHz?
Click to expand...


This is true but it will downgrade the faster card to the lower card. If you add a 7870 to your 7970 you have the equivalent of 2X 7870's. If your going to go different its best to keep the performance specs of the additional card realy close to your other card. IE 7970 and a 7950. Depending on overclocking the 7950 will only pull down the performance of the 7970 8%ish.
 
Sohaltang said:
This is true but it will downgrade the faster card to the lower card. If you add a 7870 to your 7970 you have the equivalent of 2X 7870's. If your going to go different its best to keep the performance specs of the additional card realy close to your other card. IE 7970 and a 7950. Depending on overclocking the 7950 will only pull down the performance of the 7970 8%ish.
Click to expand...
First of all, it's 7870 XT, not 7870. Second, that's what you would think would happen, but someone here corrected me when I said that. It doesn't shut down any cores, though it obviously performs worse than a pair of full chips. Either way, it's nearly impossible to get a 7870 XT now, so 7950/R9 280 and 7970/R9 280X are the only real options in the first place. I shouldn't have even mentioned it, really.
 
Techhog said:
First of all, it's 7870 XT, not 7870. Second, that's what you would think would happen, but someone here corrected me when I said that. It doesn't shut down any cores, though it obviously performs worse than a pair of full chips. Either way, it's nearly impossible to get a 7870 XT now, so 7950/R9 280 and 7970/R9 280X are the only real options in the first place. I shouldn't have even mentioned it, really.
Click to expand...

I appreciate your nuance/detail, so please keep the comments coming and do mention it.

Aren't there a ton of used AMD cards on Ebay etc. now that the scrypt mining craze is over? I haven't seen them showing up on craigslist, but I'm not sure.

If you can find a good deal on a used card, I say go for it and try crossfire just for the fun of it. That's the nice thing about having the 3 GB of VRAM, you can really push lots of pixels in crossfire and not be artificially held back by low VRAM, because each card has enough to work well in crossfire.

OK just checked ebay, wow the prices have come down a bit on 7970 and 7950. And another point regarding used video cards: some miners would intentionally underclock their video card, and otherwise take good care of it to protect their financial investment in the card itself, so not all used AMD mining cards are burnt up to a crisp, so I'd be willing to take a chance on a used card and try the fun hobby/project of crossfire.
 
KingFatty said:
I appreciate your nuance/detail, so please keep the comments coming and do mention it.

Aren't there a ton of used AMD cards on Ebay etc. now that the scrypt mining craze is over? I haven't seen them showing up on craigslist, but I'm not sure.

If you can find a good deal on a used card, I say go for it and try crossfire just for the fun of it. That's the nice thing about having the 3 GB of VRAM, you can really push lots of pixels in crossfire and not be artificially held back by low VRAM, because each card has enough to work well in crossfire.

OK just checked ebay, wow the prices have come down a bit on 7970 and 7950. And another point regarding used video cards: some miners would intentionally underclock their video card, and otherwise take good care of it to protect their financial investment in the card itself, so not all used AMD mining cards are burnt up to a crisp, so I'd be willing to take a chance on a used card and try the fun hobby/project of crossfire.
Click to expand...

Well, I decided to double check, and, basically, it won't actually disable the cores, but the faster card will show down to match the performance of the slower card, so if you get a 7950 or R9 280, you'll want to overclock it a bit to get it closer to the 7970.

EDIT: Wait, I might have been right the first time? So much conflicting info. Either way, push the CPU farther first.
 
AznAnarchy99 said:
9800 Pro and the 5870/50 were amazing cards.
Click to expand...

The 4800 series seemed pretty good to.

Anyways I know this game favors nVidia quite a bit but like typical MMO's still seems to be CPU bound. a 770 would be faster I'm not sure how much, a 780 would be your best bet if you wanted to actually "feel" a difference.

http://www.techspot.com/review/785-free-to-play-games-benchmarks/page5.html

Thats all I could find, some things really seem off like the 260X beating the 750Ti and a kinda poorer showing by the 760. Maybe AMD has optimized there drivers, also they did some performance patches I do believe.
 
Ventanni said:
I also play PS2! Things to keep in mind:

-PS2 benefits most from strong single thread performance. Overclocking helps. The game does not utilize hyperthreading.
-It doesn't need a lot of GPU power for 1080p gaming. It also runs better on Nvidia hardware, but a Radeon 280x can push 1080p Ultra settings at very fluid framerates.
-The game is picky when it comes to dual GPU solutions. I'd avoid Crossfire/SLI.

Consider a Geforce 770.
Click to expand...

That's a total sidegrade. It's an absolute waste of money to buy a 770 when you have a 7970. Some might even consider that a downgrade.
 
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